1. Field of Invention
The invention relates to a printing system having a plurality of printers connected to a network and a print control unit that transmits/receives data and commands to/from the plurality of printers over the network.
2. Description of Related Art
In a conventional printing system using a network, a plurality of printers are controlled by a single computer. In such a system, the single computer can intensively manage the operating condition and the faulty condition of each printer. Accordingly, a failed printer can be repaired efficiently, or an unusable printer can be replaced with another printer.
In a printer, macro data can be stored in a memory of the printer. Macro data is data describing a fixed format, such as a letterhead. If such macro data is stored in the memory of the printer, the body of a letter prepared in a computer and transmitted to the printer can be combined with the macro data and outputted as a complete letter. Similarly, if a table format is stored, as macro data, in the memory of the printer, numeric values and character strings to fill the table are transmitted from the computer to the printer, and can be combined with the macro data and outputted as a complete table.
A method typically used for storing macro data in each printer in the above-described networked printing system is that macro data is transmitted from the computer to each printer over the network, and then macro data is stored in each printer. In this method, the same storing process must be repeated separately for each printer. Thus, the more printers that are connected to the network, the more times the same storing task should be repeated. This is time-consuming.
The invention provides a printing system capable of storing print control data, such as macro data, in a plurality of printers connected to a network efficiently and quickly, thereby solving the above-mentioned problems.
In the printing system of the invention, a print control system designates from among the plurality of printers a plurality of destination printers to which print control data is transmitted, and transmits the print control data sequentially to the designated destination printers. On the other hand, each of the destination printers receives the print control data transmitted from the print control unit, and stores it in its memory. With an entry of a single transmission command into the print control unit, the print control data can be transmitted to the plurality of destination printers and the print control data can be stored in each of the destination printers. Accordingly, the print control data can be stored efficiently.
Further, the print control unit requests an identification code from each of the plurality of printers connected to the network, and displays each of the identification codes transmitted, in reply, from each of the printers. The displayed identification codes allow a user to choose the identification codes and designate the destination printers easily and properly. As a result, user efficiency can be improved.
Further, the print control unit may be designed to display transmission results of the print control data to each of the destination printers. Such display facilitates the user to judge the success or failure of data transmission and to cope with a transmission failure.
Usually, print command data received by a printer is enabled by resetting the printer. In this invention, the print control unit transmits a printer reset command to each of the destination printers. Thus, user efficiency can be improved.
Another method is conceivable for transmitting print control data to each of the destination printers. A print control unit transmits, to one printer selected from the destination printers, the print control data and identification codes of the other destination printers. The selected one printer stores the received print control data in its memory. Further, the selected one printer transmits the print control data to the printers associated with the identification codes, based on the received identification codes of the destination printers. Each of the destination printers receives the print control data and stores it in its memory.
In the above-described control method, the print control unit is required to transmit the print control data to just one selected printer. Then, the selected one printer transmits the print control data to other destination printers. Accordingly, after transmitting the print control data to the one selected printer, the print control unit can proceed to another process, in an efficient manner.
Further, to make full use of the above-described features of the printing system, the above described control steps may be stored in various storage media and be provided as a computer program. A print control unit or a printer into which such a program is installed from a storage medium can be used as the above-described printing system.